Franklyn

(Gerald McMorrow):

Eva Green, Ryan Phillippe, Sam Riley, Bernard Hill.

Running time: 95 minutes. (16)

Rating: 2/5

The debut film from British director Gerald McMorrow is overweeningly ambitious. It has four separate storylines, three of which are set in a burnished looking modern-day London, the other a noir-ish, ultra-religious sci-fi city straight out of Blade Runner.

The hero of that story is a violent vigilante and athiest Jonathan Preest (Ryan Phillippe). Back in real life, there's sensitive mope Milo (Sam Riley) who has a broken heart; suicidal artist Emilia (Eva Green) who wants to reconnect with her mother; and Peter (Bernard Hill), a religious man in search of his missing son.

McMorrow's heart is in the right place: his material speaks about familial alienation and melancholia. And he has ideas, too, about mental illness and vigilantism (borrowed from the Watchmen comic). But he strives too hard at being enigmatic.

The strands of the story don't have enough ballast, yet are kept separate for as long as possible in the hope of achieving a dramatic pay-off. And the finale, if you can get that far, is pretentious poppycock.